The Healthy Truth: How to follow a celebrity diet

Hello Friend,

Celebrity diets are always in the spotlight, and with all those red carpet stars looking so darn good, you can’t help but wonder how they do it. Of course, they have personal chefs and trainers so it’s far easier for them to look that great, but are those crazy diets they embark on the real deal? And are they really harboring a ‘secret’ to weight loss that we can never know?

Let’s take a look at some popular celebrity diets.

One famous actress would consume raw eggs with warm milk for breakfast, skip the lunch, have five carrots and a choice of broiled liver, steak, or lamb for dinner, and finish with a decadent hot fudge sundae dessert.

Another Hollywood legend admitted to consuming cottage cheese with sour cream and fruit, and a peanut butter-smeared steak.

Other diet trends popular in the celebrity world include

• Cayenne pepper in water with lemon
• Cabbage soup
• The Dukan Diet – mainly based on protein and vegetables
• Baby food diet
• Macrobiotic diet – no wheat, dairy, meat, or eggs, and plenty of sea vegetables
• Going vegan
• Shots of apple cider vinegar
• The 5-Factor diet – meals with only five ingredients
• Alkaline diet

Sounds intense? Well, it really is. Unless you have someone making your meals or following you around knocking junk food out of your hands, it seems near impossible to have that much of self-control. But in the midst of all the “craziness,” there are some tips we can take away from some of these celebrity diets and easily integrate into our everyday eating.

For starters, clearly, there is a large focus on vegetable consumption and, of course, we should be eating more vegetables – though, sadly, many of us don’t. Although celebrities take it to that next level of going completely vegan, how about you add one extra vegetable to your meals every day and slowly work it up.

Many celebrities have also been spokespersons for WeightWatchers, which is a weight loss plan that essentially lets you eat whatever you want – in proper portions. If America has a problem, portion size would be it. Therefore, another helpful takeaway from all those skinny celebrities is to watch those portions. An easy way to do so is to use smaller plates. Research has shown eating on smaller plates tricks us to believe we have actually eaten more than we have, so we feel fuller faster.

Another trend in celebrity dieting is eliminating all things processed and getting back to whole foods. In a traditional American meal, sugar is everywhere and we are eating more than ever. The rate of type 2 diabetes continues to climb, which is unfortunate because it is largely caused by lifestyle habits that are easily modifiable. If you want to shed pounds and lower your risk of diabetes, begin by eliminating extra sugar and processed food.

As you can see, when you get down to the nitty-gritty of it all, celebrity diets may seem scary, but many of them share the common elements that can help achieve good health and lose weight – and, frankly, we already know them. Sure, sometimes we hear about a completely ridiculous celebrity diet that makes us question if it’s for real. But if you want to make a difference in your meal regimen, skip the nonsense and get down to the core of wholesome eating.

Until next week,

Emily